Permits Issued for 2306 North Fairhill Street in North Philadelphia East

Permits have been issued for the construction of a three-story, five-unit apartment building at 2306 North Fairhill Street in North Philadelphia East. The new building will rise from a vacant lot on the west side of the block between West Dauphin Street and West York Street. Designed by Plato Marinakos, Jr. of Plato Studio, the structure will span 6,815 square feet and will include a cellar and a roof deck. Permits list Yona Construction as the contractor and specify a construction cost of $700,000.

2306 North Fairhill Street. Site plan. Credit: Plato Studio via the City of Philadelphia

The massing of the new development will be broader and shallower than that of the typical long and narrow rowhouse-style construction prevalent among new multi-unit construction throughout the rapidly developing neighborhood. The new building will measure 29 feet wide and 55 feet deep, with a rather spacious, 18-foot-deep, 535-square-foot rear yard. A three-foot-deep bay window will cantilever over the sidewalk.

The structure will rise 33 feet to the top of the main roof, 37 feet to the top of the parapet, and 43 feet to the top of the roof access bulkhead. The ceilings will rise to a rather generous height of nine to 10 feet. Surprisingly, the roof deck will span only 323 square feet, less than a quarter of the total roof space, which, frankly, seems like something of a waste of valuable open space in the project. Judging by the building section included in the zoning submission, the cellar will be used as residential space.

2306 North Fairhill Street. Aerial viewl. Credit: Plato Studio via the City of Philadelphia

2306 North Fairhill Street. Site conditions prior to redevelopment. Credit: Plato Studio via the City of Philadelphia

2306 North Fairhill Street will be the first addition to the predominantly rowhouse block since the end of World War II. Although the block was spared the worst ravages of a scourge of depopulation and subsequent demolitions that swept the neighborhood in the postwar years, it still registers several vacant lots, which will be much improved by new construction such as the latest proposal.

Situated within a nearly mile-long walk of Temple University, the primary driver of real estate development in North Central Philadelphia over the past 20 or so years, it may be a bit of a stretch to designate it as part of the “Temple University area“; however, regardless of whether the development would house university students, members of the local blue-collar residential community, or anyone else, new housing replacing vacant lots is a welcome development for the neighborhood.

The Temple University campus and the Susquehanna-Dauphin Station on the Broad Street subway line are both situated within a roughly 17-minute4 walk to the southwest and to the west, respectively. Route 39 and 47 buses run along Dauphin Street just to the south of the proposed building.

2306 North Fairhill Street. Zoning table. Credit: Plato Studio via the City of Philadelphia

2306 North Fairhill Street. Property deed detail. Credit: Plato Studio via the City of Philadelphia

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